December 19, 2013

Be careful, and think about what you are doing before you risk it all. Many self directed retirement proprietors encourage ROBS programs in order to get clients….I don’t.

While many people have successfully started businesses using these techniques, many others have lost everything by making mistakes. Is it worth it? That’s a choice you have to make.

A recent decision by The United States Tax Court made the waters even more murky. The court ruled on October 29th 2013 that Terry and Sheila Ellis participated in prohibited transactions with their self directed IRA. Essentially the IRA paid salaries to the owners of the IRA.

I guess my thought is: Why use your retirement funds for a business start up, when you can’t make any money from the business without the IRS chasing you down? To me this kind of defeats the point of starting a business.

At Longboat, we don’t tell you what to do with your money, but we will give you some things to think about regarding your choices. Longboat encourages you to take the long-view.